Good morning, fellow losers. Let’s get back on track with these threads.
I’m joining a gym this afternoon.
GOAL!
After the May holidays, I finally decided to get serious and make some sustainable changes in my habits. I started bringing a lunch every day instead of eating restaurant or convenience store food, cutting way back on evening snacks before dinner, and biking to work every day (26km round trip).
Just about the end of last month, I reached my goal of 80kg, down from 88kg, and I’ve lost about 5-6cm off my waist. I’ve aso been managing 500km/month on my bike the last two months.
185cm
start weight: 88.0kg
goal weight: 80.0kg
current weight: 79.4kg
Exxxcellent.
I recently discovered the tape measure I was using was inaccurate. Thus I lost two inches in one day! 
I used the army worksheets to calculate my bodyfat percentage. It ain’t pretty, but at least now I have a consistent standard. My legs are starting to look hot though. I’m seeing muscle where muscle never existed before.
I only weigh myself on Saturdays, so I can’t confirm that I’ve been losing weight, but I’ve definitely been exercising and sticking to my nutrition plan so I will be shocked if there isn’t more progress.
Why, the other day I went running – was supposed to go 2 miles, was practically throwing up by 1.3 and had to stop – but turns out I was running faster than I’ve run in two months, tying my PR. And it wasn’t even that hard for the first mile–I was having that trippy running euphoria for the first time. I don’t feel like I failed; I feel awesome.
So I am making some marked progress on a course that’s tougher than the old one–we’ve got a bastard hill at the 1.1 mile marker that only slowed me down 6 seconds this time! My plan is to get down to 12 minute miles and then add more distance. In the back of my mind, I’ve got that marathon safely kept, but I also have infinite patience, and I know I’m not going to really start running well until I get this weight off.
Starting Tuesday I’ll be in Michigan for two weeks for job training, so I will have to work very hard to stay on track, and then when I return, I’ll have to work even harder due to the limited time I will have. I am going to have no more than 2-3 hours a day after work to make my exercise/nutrition/meditation dreams come true, so discipline is essential.
Word to the wise: don’t go running 10 minutes after finishing an intense abdominal workout.
Good luck everybody!
olives, is this a new job, or are you with the same company?
I posted over The Lost Weekend, but I’m going to brag again.
I am one pound away from my goal weight! I finally told Ivylad what my starting weight was because I. Will. Never. Be. There. Again!!!
So, I will check this weekend instead of my normal two weeks, because I will have to make SparkPeople (www.sparkpeople.com) adjustments.
Off topic…we can’t hyperlink anymore? When I try, it skips right over the “enter text” part and goes right to the “enter url” part.
I haven’t posted here for a while but there hasn’t really been anything to report. I’m still at 163-164, with the occasional dip down to 162. It’s a good weight for me, and I look and feel good. The best thing I have to report is that I went on vacation for a week and didn’t gain a single pound. Don’t hate me. 
I ate ice cream pretty much every day while I was gone, too. It probably helped that I did a lot of hiking, biking, and swimming.
Hi everyone!
I hope y’all have some room for another loser. (I used to post in these threads waaaaaaaayyy back when, but then went into lurker status during the dark days of pay-to-post.)
Anyway, I’ve only just gotten serious again about dropping the pounds this summer. On June 1, I weighed myself in for the official start of my attempt to lose weight, and set a goal of losing 100 pounds by June 1 of next year and a total of 250 in a three-year period.
My last weigh-in was Sept 2, and as of that date, I had lost 33 pounds. I’m practically swimming in some of my newest (bought at my fattest) shirts!
Good luck and good work, everyone!
I’ve been slacking. Making excuses to not get on my exercise bike. I’m still eating better, but I got lazy and stopped logging everything on the Sparkpeople site. But I started up again this week. Finding time to work out is SO hard. I only have about two or three free hours in my day where I have to squeeze all my extra stuff in, like journaling, checking the boards, emailing friends, and working out.
I lost 8 pounds, and I’ve stabilized at this new weight, but I still want to get ten more pounds off of me by Christmas. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. I know I’ll never get there unless I get my butt moving, though, and that’s what I’m trying to push myself towards this month. I’ve made some good changes in my eating habits, and I’m proud of that. Just need to get the second half of the equation working too. I hear so many people raving about running, and my boyfriend runs a few times a week, but I’m hesitant to try it because my ankles and knees aren’t all that hot. So for now I’ll stick to the bike.
I’m considering buying some resistance bands - has anyone tried them? I have dumbbells, and I use them, but I’m looking to change it up a little. I got a ball, too, but I don’t like it and it takes up too much room.
It is a new job with the same company (read: promotion!) I am excited but I’ll be living in a hotel for 2 weeks so I must remember to use the treadmill and eat properly even with all that restaurant temptation.
I am SO proud of you!
We can still hyperlink, you just have to type out the word and then highlight it–will hyperlink automatically.
I weighed in this week at 210, putting me at a 35 lb loss since mid-April. I have 10 more pounds to get down to my 2nd short-term goal (each time I try to lose 10% of my body weight). We had family over last weekend and they were impressed by how good I’m looking. 
Very cool.
Since the temps are very cool in the morning here in the NE, I’ve been walking outside. I don’t burn as many calories as I do on the elliptical x-trainer, but it’s going to be cold and snowy soon and I want to get out as much as possible while I can.
But what is that in English? 194 down to 175 ? Wow!
I’ve been on Weight Watchers core program and eating more healthfully. The best part is I don’t get heartburn much anymore and my BP is down to 117/73 and pulse from 68 down to 61. It’s been 16 weeks and 47 pounds (324->277). I feel more comfortable moving around and my sleep is somewhat more restful (I have a CPAP machine I don’t use but did have a reading of mild apnea during the sleep study). Looks aren’t the goal but it’s more comfortable being a little less of an outlier.
I’m down to 90kg - it’s taken a while to shift 3kg, but 23kg for the year so far is pretty good.
I’m really getting into running - I’ve just ordered a Heart Rate Monitor/GPS running tracker to help improve my pace and distance. I got my bike out and had a ride last week, too. I have a charity 10km run in two weeks time, and I’d like to beat my 24 y.o stepson who has also signed up. He will probably beat me hollow, but I want to try to make him sweat.
My next goal is 85kg. More hard work.
Si
Question: When you start a weight loss regimen (like Weight Watchers), how long til your body adjusts and you don’t feel like you’re starving all the time?
I think I might be able to pull it off if I knew after three weeks it’d be easier.
Another question: I have no problem at all eating healthfully during the day. But late afternoon hits and I just want pie and kolaches. End of the day comes, sun starts to go down, and I just want to go home and lick my wounds with cheese. Does this happen to anyone else? What techniques do you use to cope with it?
I had lost 5 pounds but I took a vacation which did involve lots of walking but also involved lots of bad food and some alcohol. I’m still recovering from my vacation but I don’t really want to weigh myself.
It will, obviously, vary for each person. What I did was to start with an amount just a bit under what I had been consuming (2-300 calories), then lower that by 1-200 calories every other week or so. By making these small changes, I’m only ever “hungry” for a day or two, and even that doesn’t hit at every change.
Absolutely. What I’ve done to cope is a three-fold plan:
- I’ve listed out my motivations for losing weight (the health benefits I want to see, more self-confidence, better sex life, whatever…) and I refer to that as needed.
- I log everything I eat (not as painful as it sounds) and use that to keep myself honest. Numbers don’t lie!
- I have a frontal and profile shot of myself as my desktop on my computer at home. Man, those pictures do more than anything else to make me drop the cookies.
Hooray! I can post!
I’ve been lurking in the SDMB Weight Loss Club since May of this year. In early June, I finally followed Ivylass over to SparkPeople and WOW! I’ve lost about 18lbs since I began my fitness quest (almost 16 of those while at Spark People)!
I really don’t have anything more to say than that, but I was just so darned excited to be able to say it!
I used to post in these threads, but I haven’t had posting privileges in quite a while. I also sort of fell off the weight loss wagon at the same time but I am now determined to get back on the horse (hello, mixed metaphor!). About 2 years ago I went from about 210-215 (not sure, stopped weighing myself at the peak) to 165. Let myself slack off and instead of finishing the job I actually gained some back. Now I am around 175 and I want to be 145-150.
I just joined SparkPeople in an effort to be more accountable to myself for what I eat and do. Is there a Straight Dope group or something there? I’m still figuring out how it all works (I am Meyer6 over there, too).
I think I’m going to start doing high-intensity weight-lifting. I already have an iron dumbbell set sitting around to get me started. There’s an excellent site about women’s weight lifting at www.stumptuous.com. The thing is, I can sit around lifting little ankle weights and doing my exercise ball and it will help for a while, but ultimately I am a hardass who wants to do hardass things. I think it is really going to change things up for me.
Good for you si_blakely! Running is my recently discovered passion.
Incidentally, I nearly passed out today after my run, and I still feel like crap. I’ve been dizzy all week and every time I wonder if I’m consuming too few calories and then eat more food, but it doesn’t do much good. I haven’t been all that hungry. Could it be dehydration??? I haven’t been drinking any water during the day, and just about 8oz before and after my runs. I drank two glasses of water afterward and I feel better, but not great.
Take a look at Crossfit if you want hardass. I see that there are some concerns about overexercising, but I hope to look at building my future workouts around a Crossfit style program, when my gym gets some more free-weights. I like the rower which Crossfit bases cardio work around.
I find it hard to balance calorie restriction for weight loss and high energy expenditure. While I have cut out most carb sources from my diet, if I do carb up (lasagna, yum) I find my runs are better. So I really have to balance everything. Try a bit more water, and eat something salty, too. The salt will prevent cramps and help your electrolyte balance.
But it could be something else. My wife has been feeling sick all week and a bit dizzy, and the doctor finally told her she probably has a mild inner ear infection. I wondered, because I have had a few of those. She seems to be on the mend, though.
Good luck.
Si
Today, I weigh the least that I have in the past 10 years, or so. I measured myself at 84.2 kg, 185 lbs. That’s down 8 kg (17 lbs) from last Nov.
My BMI is finally just less than 25.
I’ve done this by drinking less, cutting out snacks and not eating sweets at night.
It works best for me to weigh myself each day, and helps provide the motivation to not drink that night, or to have one less beer.
I’ve started up walking on the weekends, and plan on kicking it up to jogging.